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Barence (1228440) writes "Microsoft will deliver a touchscreen PC that is "no thicker than a sheet of glass" within the next three years, according to the company's principal researcher. The device will be the next generation of Microsoft's Surface project, which currently houses a touchscreen PC in a deep cabinet that uses cameras to detect hand gestures and objects placed on the screen. According to Microsoft's Bill Buxton, "Surface will become no thicker than a sheet of glass. It’s not going to have any cameras or projectors because the cameras will be embedded in the device itself." Microsoft is developing a new screen technology to make this possible. "The best way to think about it is like a big LCD where there’s a fourth pixel in every triad. So there’s red, green, and blue pixels giving you light, and a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff," Buxton claims in an interview with The Globe and Mail."Link to Original Source

Is there some standard glass sheet size? Because the glass in the soundproof windows behind me will be significantly thicker than the glass in the monitor in front of me (do they still use glass for those?)

... and only a year behind Apple & Android 'sheet of glass' offerings... if the MS date doesn't slip when they try to get Win 7 Non-desktop running on it instead of Win CE.

MS needs to finish and release Singularity. It's advanced, secure and will scale from embedded devices to handhelds to desktops to servers. Hell, they can even call it WIndows Singularity if it makes their marketing monkeys happy.

That's getting into Nostradamus territory. Seriously, three years in the computing world is a very long horizon.

As for making a prediction like that to the press, Buxton is just asking for trouble. I don't know what it is about MS R&D, but they seem to be unable to keep themselves from making promises they can't keep, and generating interesting ideas that never make it to market.